Flash questions??

KarenD · Nov 2, 2012

Im a total beginner and I've recently bought a Canon 400D (Rebel xti) and Im hoping to buy a decent enough flash, only thing is I don't know where to start! what am I looking for in a flash and what flashes have you found worked well? should i stay with the canon brand or look elsewhere? Budget would be around MAX 200 (second hand obviously).
Any info will be greatly appreciated!

Big Mike · Nov 2, 2012

Welcome aboard.

I'd certainly recommend a flash that can tilt & swivel, as that will allow you to bounce the flash. It's hard to go wrong with a current Canon flash, so if you can find a 430EX (I or II), it would be a great match for your camera.

There are plenty of off-brand flash units that can save you money. Look for something that is 'dedicated' for Canon or says 'ETTL compatible for Canon). There are some cheap ones, so buyer beware.

pixmedic · Nov 2, 2012

i would check ebay and craigslist in your area. your best bet is a Canon flash if you can swing it.
a quick ebay search shows quite a few Canon 430 EX's in the $200 range.

MLeeK · Nov 2, 2012

I highly recommend that you go with at the very least what Mike recommended. I usually suggest at least one good, dedicated flash to match your camera brand. Mostly because it gets complicated when you discuss off brands. Metz and Sigma make some excellent off brands. Metz can run you as much as the canon brand, but they have a darned brilliant design and there are several here who swear by them.
THere are the YN (yongnuo) which are a cheap import that is incredible for the price. I am a fan of having some of them-but first and foremost that one good, dedicated flash.
Kathy posted the current rebates from Canon last night here. Search Canon Rebates and it should come up. The 430 EX II is right about your budget. Personally I'd squeeze or save to get to it if it's just over.

TCampbell · Nov 2, 2012

I usually recommend the Canon 430EX II. It's a very solid workhorse. It includes nearly every feature that you'd ever actually use and it's fairly powerful (it's not Canon's most powerful, but it's strong enough that it'll cover the vast majority of a person's shooting needs.)

A flash does more than just flash... you'll want to be aware of that when shopping for flashes to make sure the flash has the features you want.

Dedicated flashes usually offer a "guide number". This is a base number that can be used to determine how far the flash can throw enough light for an adequate exposure. It's either listed in feet or meters (Canon lists there's in meters and the first two digits of the flash's model number is the guide number. E.g. the 430EX II has a guide number of 43 meters.) The guide number assumes f/1.0 and ISO 100. This makes the math very easy. When using a lens, divide the guide number by the f-stop you are using. That's it. At f/5.6 the flash with the guide number of 43 meters will provide useful lighting up to 7.6 meters away (about 25'). If you use a light modifier, you're losing some light (often about 1 stop). If you bounce the flash off a white ceiling, the flash has to travel farther and the ceiling wont reflect all the light (it'll probably bounce less than half.) So you can see how that 43 meter distance (141' feet) gets cut down pretty quickly in real-world shooting situations.

A flash will almost always have the option to fire in manual mode, but some flashes will let you control the power level when firing in manual mode (e.g. 1/2 power, 1/4 power, ... my flash goes down to 1/128th power.)

Some flashes can be controlled via an on-camera menu.

Canon has a TTL metering system for flash photography called E-TTL and E-TTL II. It's a fairly sophisticated system which meters the scene for light levels via the camera's "evaluative" metering mode looking for any bright spots in the scene. It fires a "pre-flash" and meters the scene again (simultaneously) and re-evalutes the "evaluative" metering to look for differences between the "with" and "without" flash meter readings. It's looking for light sources in your scene (spots where the light level hardly changed when flash was added) and reflections (spots where the light levels changed a LOT) and also the light level with the pre-flash everywhere else. The system tries to find out how much light should be used for the real exposure. It even uses the camera's focus distance information. It then fires the flash again as the camera takes the photo. It's a nice system intended to be fully-automatic and hard to fool (though not impossible.)

Some flashes have a built-in ability to be used off-camera as a "slave" or remotely fired light.

Some flashes have a built-in ability to operate on-camera as a "master" which can trigger the remote firing of off-camera lights (including full support for Canon E-TTL).

Some flashes have a built-in "focus assist" beam. When you're using the flash, it's possible that you might be using the flash because it's too dark to see. If the camera can't see then it can't focus. The flash fires a "focus assist" beam (a red beam pattern) that the camera can lock onto and this provides accurate focus in the dark.

Some flashes allow you to tilt the head up 90º. Some allow the head to swivel 360º (180º left or right). Others may not swivel or may limit how far they'll swivel.

Some flashes may support "2nd curtain" firing. Normally a flash fires when the camera shutter OPENS. 2nd curtain means that the flash delays firing until just BEFORE the shutter CLOSES. When taking a long exposure, any streaked blur in the photo will be "behind" the subject (think of a sci-fi movie where people get to move really fast and you see a blur trail behind them -- it's that effect.)

Some flashes may support "high speed sync". A camera has a maximum shutter speed when using flash. The speed is based on the amount of time it takes the camera to physically open the shutter completely. If the flash fires before the shutter is completely open, then part of the frame will be dark. But when a camera is using a very fast shutter speed, it never opens "completely" -- it just exposes a slit which slides across the frame. If a flash were used in that situation then you'd have an image which is mostly dark except for a bright band (where the slit in the shutter happened to be when the flash fired.) "High speed sync" causes the flash to pulse very rapidly as the shutter moves so that the entire image gets the benefit of flash (when this mode is activated the flash cannot fire at full power because it has to reserve enough energy to strobe multiple times.)

Some flashes support "multi-strobic" mode. This allows you to set a timed interval to fire the flash. It creates a multi-exposure effect and is usually done when shooting action. For example... imagine you're photographing someone throwing a ball. You'd catch their arm in many positions as the flash fires rapidly. You control the timing (number of flashes per second.) As with high-speed sync, you can't fire at full power because it has to reserve enough power for all the required pulses you requested.

Some flashes have heads the mechanically 'zoom' to change the angle of light.

Some flashes have built-in catch-light or bounce cards.

That's a LOT of features. A flagship flash would have all of these features. As you go down lineup, they eliminate some features. For example my Canon 580EX II does everything listed above. My 430EX II cuts out a few things... it doesn't support multi-strobic mode. It doesn't have a bounce card. It can behave as a remote "slave" but it cannot act as a "master".

The point of all this is: I've evaluated lots of 3rd party flashes. Its certainly possible to keep prices low by reducing features. A few third party models are a bit optimistic about their stats (the flashes aren't as powerful or consistent as the manufacturer claims.) But what I have noticed is that when a third party flash matches the brand name flash feature-for-feature... the 3rd party flash tends to cost nearly as much as the brand name flash (the brand name is usually more... but only slightly more.) Mostly what I like about brand name flashes is that the compatibility is assured.

KarenD · Nov 2, 2012

Thanks everyone! Really helps!
I've found a 430EX for 130, but im kind of thinking if i can find that at that price it might be worth my while searching for something better and on the higher end of my budget, or should i just go with for it as it seems to be a real bargain?

MLeeK · Nov 2, 2012

KarenD said:
Thanks everyone! Really helps!
I've found a 430EX for 130, but im kind of thinking if i can find that at that price it might be worth my while searching for something better and on the higher end of my budget, or should i just go with for it as it seems to be a real bargain?

The 430EX or the 430EX II?